The Alchemist

Company Intro

Creative cocktail bar and restaurant group, The Alchemist is famed for celebrating molecular mixology, alchemy and craftsmanship. Known as ‘masters in the dark arts of molecular mixology’ and for their ‘demons in the kitchen,’ Alchemist mixologists serve cocktails in all manner of vessels with a commitment to theatre and panache. With 22 locations in the UK, the brand is expanding internationally, with the launch of its first German site in May 2023. 

The Problem

Before implementing IRONSCALES, The Alchemist had previously relied on a Secure Email Gateway that required a lot of manual intervention to manage and maintain. With an IT team of only three responsible for all tech-related activities for their 22 restaurant and bar locations and head office, finding an effective solution that could make the teams’ workloads lighter was high on the list.

The Alchemist needed an advanced email security solution that could identify malicious emails and work across the organization without unnecessary complexity. They needed an easy-to-use solution that leveraged AI and machine learning to automate the detection and remediation of phishing threats as possible, freeing IT staff from the heavy manual intervention the incumbent solution required.

Finally, given that cybersecurity was not top of mind for front-of-house staff like bartenders, servers, and those in the kitchen, awareness training needed to be compelling, relevant, brief, and most of all — human and relatable.

“The Alchemist has a good relationship with Saepio Solutions and we take their advice very seriously,” said Paul Jones, Head of IT at The Alchemist. “They listened to what was important for us in an email security solution – AI-based phishing protection, automation, and awareness training for staff. Then they connected us with IRONSCALES. I’m very pleased they did.”

"It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, you’re at risk for security incidents. But some industries are targeted more than others, and for hospitality, it's become more common, especially over the past year. To have a product like IRONSCALES that I know is stopping a lot of the bad stuff coming in is very reassuring."

Paul Jones Head of IT, The Alchemist

Solution

It was essential to The Alchemist’s lean IT team to have a solution combining AI and machine learning with training. Before implementing IRONSCALES, The Alchemist had to remediate often and classify incidents manually or attempt to bolt on disparate solutions that didn’t necessarily integrate with their existing tech stack.

Upon trialing IRONSCALES, The Alchemist immediately saw how easy the solution was to use and how quickly the AI learned the behavior of their business. Over time, this resulted in less hands-on intervention from the IT team, allowing them to focus on other aspects of their jobs.

After 2 weeks post-implementation , The Alchemist realized that they were intervening and assessing threats much less frequently, giving IT staff time they’d not had before to deal with other essential initiatives and work.

Jones was also looking for a fully integrated solution that combined AI-powered email security and phishing simulation and training to boost employees' security awareness. “In the hospitality industry, you’ve got a lot of very busy bartenders, servers, and chefs,” said Jones. “They are more concerned about making amazing cocktails and food than cybersecurity. IRONSCALES created digestible training and awareness content that was well received by all staff."

Outcomes

Since implementing IRONSCALES a year ago, the bar and restaurant has experienced significant ROI. The Alchemist saved 487 hours on risk mitigation efforts at a financial savings of 38.5M USD. Operationally, the IRONSCALES implementation saved The Alchemist $24,350 USD per hour on mitigation efforts alone.

The Alchemist team saves more than 60 analysts hours (about two and a half days) using IRONSCALES to automatically detect and remediate phishing threats across their environment. In fact, more than 1.3M emails were inspected, with 13,156 emails remediated.

“One of our vendors experienced a breach, and the business simply stopped – they couldn’t log into their environment because of an account takeover,” said Jones. “That’s a scary situation to be in. Although I was looking for an email security product with IRONSCALES, it’s reassuring that we also got added protection against an account takeover attack.”

The IT team isn’t the only one benefiting from implementing IRONSCALES. Service staff are getting the training they need and engaging with the content. Participation in phishing simulation training campaigns now averages a click rate of 1.04%. Other entities within the business are also saving time. Business users no longer must wait on the IT team to release emails – IRONSCALES handles it, creating less friction and frustration for Alchemist team members.

Results

38M

Financial saving

13,156

Emails remediated

1%

Phishing Simulation Training click-rate

Looking Ahead

Over the next 6-12 months, The Alchemist will strengthen their employees’ security awareness by launching more targeted training campaigns and phishing simulations based on actual threats that IRONSCALES identified across different platforms like SMS.

"Potential IRONSCALES customers considering switching vendors have asked for my feedback. I don’t hesitate to recommend IRONSCALES."

Paul Jones Head of IT, The Alchemist

About IRONSCALES

IRONSCALES is the leader in AI-powered email security protecting over 15,000 global organizations from advanced phishing threats. As the pioneer of adaptive AI, we detect and remediate attacks like business email compromise (BEC), account takeovers (ATO), and zero-days that other solutions miss. By combining the power of AI and continuous human insights, we safeguard inboxes, unburden IT teams, and turn employees into a vital part of cyber defense across enterprises and managed service providers. IRONSCALES is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. To learn more, visit www.ironscales.com or follow us on X @IRONSCALES.